ATOMIC HERITAGE FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Sergeant Abe Spitzer was a radio operator who witnessed both the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He served as the radio operator for The Great Artiste, which served as the blast measurement instrumentation aircraft during the Hiroshima bomb mission. He was the radio operator on Bockscar, which dropped the Fat Man bomb on Nagaski.
Job Titles:
- Technical Engineer K - 25 Plant / Oak Ridge, TN
Alfred "Al" Zeltmann was a member of the Special Engineer Detatchment (SED) at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project.
Born in 1921, Zeltmann was raised in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He was working as a machinist and attending classes at Cooper Union when he was drafted into the Army in 1942.
Assigned to the SED, Zeltmann was briefly stationed at Oak Ridge before he arrived at Los Alamos in 1944. He served as a Technician Third Grade (T/3). He worked on detecting neutrons as part of the polonium production process for the "Fat Man" bomb's initiator. He then worked on the RaLa (radioactive lanthanum) experiments under Gerhart Friedlander.
After the war, Zeltmann remained at Los Alamos. He studied at the University of New Mexico, ultimately earning a Ph.D. in radiochemistry, and worked as a physical chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory for nearly 40 years.
Job Titles:
- Mechanical Engineer Los Alamos, NM / Oak Ridge, TN
Alfred Carson was a mechanical engineer in the Special Engineering Detachment, and spent time at both Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. He completed his education at Georgia Tech in 1943 and joined the project immediately following graduation. After working on the Manhattan Project, Carson went on to work at Lockheed Martin.
Eleanor Blanchard served as a sergeant in the Women's Auxiliary Corps during World War II. She worked as a typist at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and also operated the switchboard for the Tech Area.
Howard A. Thompson served as a sergeant in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron. He was a member of the ground crew regularly assigned to the B-29 Straight Flush.
J. P. Van Huss worked for the J.A. Jones Construction Company.
John Fancher worked for the Kellex Corporation at the K-25 Plant.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant at the Chicago Met Lab During the Manhattan Project
Job Titles:
- Research & Development / 300 Area
Lutz worked in the 300 Area at Hanford during the Manhattan Project.
W. Q. Smith worked for Clinton Laboratories at the X-10 Reactor.